Statement Issued to the Press by the Secretary of War (Patterson)

Western Germany’s most recent food crisis has been a source of deep concern for weeks to General Clay (United States Commander in Germany), to the staff here, and to me as Secretary of War. Every measure within our power has been taken to meet it. Since last December, food shipments to Germany from the United States have been greater than ever before. Substantially all of such food imports required have had to come from the United States as the only available source, but they have been paid for jointly by the British and ourselves.

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In February, Mr. Hoover’s authoritative survey of food needs laid down a program of required imports calculated with regard to the then estimated food supplies available in Germany.50 The imports called for by Mr. Hoover have been met up to May 1, except for an amount equal to about one week’s ration. Even this is only a delay, not a reduction, as present scheduled shipments—for which cargoes are available and ships have already been chartered—are sufficient to make up this short-fall in this month and in June, as well as the current deliveries recommended by Mr. Hoover’s report for such months.

However, subsequent to Mr. Hoover’s departure from Germany, it became evident, with the breaking up of the winter, that large amounts of food had been destroyed or would be required for reseeding, because of winter destruction of crops which had been sown in the fall. These factors reduced available local supplies by almost 200,000 tons. A very substantial part of this was directly attributable to the severity of the winter, which was the worst in almost 50 years.

Our present estimates are that over 400,000 tons of food will be delivered to Germany in May—including 72,000 from countries other than the United States—at least 400,000 more in June and even more in July. Such shipments, we believe, should be sufficient to maintain the ration from now on. These have been made possible only by the most vigorous efforts by the departments of State, Agriculture, and War, working jointly as a team to meet the crisis by speeding up shipments and, to the maximum extent possible, increasing total amounts.

Also as a part of this emergency program, 74,000,000 pounds of dry non-fat milk solids (dry skimmed milk) have been procured and are now about to be shipped to Germany. This has been possible because skimmed milk is at this time in surplus supply, and has been under purchase by the Department of Agriculture. This milk supplies a much-needed protein content in the German diet which has been sadly lacking because of shortage of other foods. It also makes possible the most effective utilization in the diet of large shipments of corn, of which available suppplies in this country are much larger than of wheat or flour. These steps are pursuant to the policy of the War Department, as previously illustrated by the seed potato program, to utilize as far as possible for the occupied territories foods which are in surplus [Page 1149] supply in this country, and which can be exported without creating inflationary tendencies by raising food prices.

This latest crisis due to the winter and internal conditions in Germany has come at a time when the world is short of food, when the United States is exporting each month greater amounts of relief foods than ever before in its history, and when port facilities, railroad cars and ocean shipping are all taxed to the limit to meet the needs of many countries, more than one of which are threatened with a break in delivery of their rations such as has already occurred in parts of Germany. This is the first time that I know of in history in which conquerors have made an effort on any such scale to feed their defeated enemy, and the fact that there is not actual starvation in Germany is due only to the tremendous productivity of the United States and the willingness and efforts of our government and the British to help.

  1. During February 1947, former President Hoover carried out an economic mission to Germany and Austria at the request of President Truman. For the text of Hoovers report to President Truman on German agricultural and food requirements, submitted to the President on February 26, 1947, see Herbert Hoover, An American Epic: The Guns Cease Killing and the Saving of Life from Famine Begins 1939–1963, vol. iv (Chicago, Henry Regnery Company, 1964), pp. 230–243.